Slip Of Mind, by Trisha H.
Chapter 2
Summary: Takes place directly after Dead Things. The Super Geeks gain control of Spike's chip and use him like a weapon, but since they are the Super GEEKS, things don't go quite the way they planned. B/S in nature. . It's a response to a challenge posted by Nos on Crumbling Walls ([1]http://cgi.komodo-skin.com/forum). The challenge details are written in the first chapter.
Rating: R to be safe. I don't really know.
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Never were, never will be, Joss owns the whole world, blah blah blah.
Spoilers: Through Dead Things.
Feedback: PLEASE! [2]Dragolyn@hotmail.com
I would love to know if you think I wrote the character's voices right. Especially the Scoobies. I've never written them before, so this was new territory for me.
*********
Convincing Xander to meet her at Spike's crypt was easier than Buffy imagined it would be. She'd raced home to make the call for help, ignoring the nagging voice inside her mind that shouted about how it wasn't the smartest of plans to leave Spike tied up alone, even for a little while. Too many creatures of the demon world had it out for him these days, thanks to his sudden change of nature. Trying to ignore the pricklings of fear growing in her stomach, she ran up the stairs to her bedroom and threw a change of clothes into a bag. Passing by Dawn's room on her way to the bathroom, she thanked whatever lucky stars had made this crisis fall on a school day.
"Will!" she shouted, digging through the medicine drawer. "Wake up! Come on! I need your help!" Bandages, gauze, antibiotic ointment... none of those things would help Spike. Burn cream, tiny scissors, latex gloves, an ace bandage... no, no, no! She needed... what? A demon psychologist? A miracle? "No, something realistic," she said, running into Willow's bedroom and shaking her sleeping friend by the shoulders. "Will, wake up. Wake up! I need a spell."
"H...huh?" She sat up groggily, brushing her hair off of her face with both hands. "Buffy, what is it? What's wrong? Is Dawn okay?"
"Not Dawn," Buffy said, flinging off the bedclothes and tugged Willow to a stand. "It's Spike. He's... well, there's no time to explain. Just get dressed, okay?"
Willow shook her head. "Buffy, you know I can't do any magic. This... this isn't a test, is it? To see if I'll give in? `Cause I wont. I'm past that now."
"No test," Buffy said as she threw open the closet and tossed a pair of jeans onto the bed. "Call Tara. Now. Get dressed, go get Tara, and meet me at Spike's crypt."
"But Buffy..." Willow looked at her with nervous eyes. "I don't know... me and Tara don't exactly talk..."
"Not now, Willow. This is too important. Get her. Bring her, and whatever you'll need for a spell to... to... I don't know. He's crazed, like an animal. Do you still have any of those tranquillizers you used to give Oz wolf?"
"Spike's crazed? What happened?"
"Willow. Not. Now." Buffy growled, looking anxiously at her watch. The sun wouldn't rise for another hour. That gave all sorts of creatures plenty of time to stumble across Spike. Restrained as he was, he'd be helpless to protect himself. She had to hurry. "Bring whatever you think could help calm him, and get there, with Tara, as soon as you can." She rushed out of the room, not waiting for an answer.
Willow stared after her, blinking, trying to process what had just happened. "Wrong," she muttered, pulling on her clothes. "Something is very wrong here."
Picking up the phone with a shaking hand, she hesitated briefly before forcing herself to dial the numbers. "Hi, Tara? It's... it's me,Willow. Sorry to wake you up, but... it's Scooby time."
*************************
Xander climbed down the ladder to the lower level of the crypt, followed closely by Willow and Tara. He walked towards Spike's bed, but leapt back with alarm as Spike lunged against the restraints, snarling at him. "Holy tamales, Buff. Why didn't you mention on the phone that Spike's turned into a... that he's become a... what the heck is wrong with him, anyway?"
"You just answered your own question. What was I suppose to say? I have no clue what happened. He's gone all Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One minute, he was Spike. The next..." she gestured towards the bed, at a loss.
Willow approached the bed slowly, her hands open in front of her. "Hey there, Spike, it's okay," she soothed. "Remember me? Little ole, couldn't hurt a fly me?"
Tara raised a skeptical eyebrow, but said nothing. She followed Willow to the bed, a syringe in her hand. "Give him this, if he'll let you," she whispered, passing her the tranquilizer.
Spike stared at them, yellow eyes wild, teeth bared. The restraints were tethered to the corner bedpost, forcing him to lay on his side. His hands clenched into tight fists as he watched Willow draw near. The curved line of his body went rigid. A low growl rumbled from his chest.
"He is *so* not going to let you poke a needle into him right now," Buffy said from the foot of the bed. Kneeling on the mattress by Spike's knees, she ignored his ferocious noises. "I'll have to hold him down." She grabbed him by the shoulders, being careful to avoid his snapping jaws. "Xander, a little help please? Grab his legs and hang on tight."
Xander sat beside Spike's legs and leaned on them with his forearms. "Not having much fun here, Will," he grunted, struggling against Spike's thrashings. "Hurry, yeah?"
"Hurrying," she agreed, and quickly thrust the needle into Spike's arm. She jumped back, followed by Xander.
Buffy stayed on the bed, her hands white with the effort to hold Spike still. She couldn't bring herself to look at his eyes. They rolled in their sockets, completely void of comprehension. Focusing on her own hands where they dug into the pale width of his upper arms, she waited for the drug to bring him back to her. Heat welled beneath her eyes, and she bit her lip, staunching the tears. He'll be fine, in just a minute. Just another minute and the drugs'll work and he'll be Spike again.
A minute passed, and then another. They trickled by slowly without changing a thing. Xander paced the room, trying to ignore the expression on Buffy's face. Nothing leads to panic as quickly as the sight of a horrified Slayer. His eyes widened as he watched her run her fingertips over Spike's sweat-dampened hair. Okay, that's weird, but not *too* weird, he told himself. Spike's her friend now. He... helps out with Dawn... and patrolling...
Catching both Buffy's gesture and the look on Xander's face, Tara grabbed him by the arm. "Hey, could you... umm... uhh... oh, could you get the box of magic supplies from the car please? We'll need them if the drug doesn't start working soon."
"We'll need them even if the drug does work," Willow said, observing Spike with a critical gaze. "Something's doing this to him.... something unnatural."
"Do you think it's his chip?" Buffy asked, blinking rapidly as sweat dripped into her eyes. Spike had ceased struggling, but his muscles were taut and ready to take advantage of the first sign of weakness. She didn't dare relax her hold on him. The cuffs would keep him still, keep him from hurting someone else, but she needed to touch him. She needed to feel his familiar skin under her hands, to know that something of him was still with her. "It could be... I dunno, backfiring, or something?"
"It would be pretty weird if the chip could naturally malfunction in a way that would make him more dangerous then he was before it was implanted. Those Initiative docs would have made certain that wouldn't happen. This isn't natural. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I know how to find out. There's this spell I found once, when I was trying to undone what Glory did to your brain, Tara. It's like a... a pinpointing spell. It'll map his brain and find any areas of unusual change. I don't know exactly what makes it work, or for sure if it'll help, but... well, I don't know what else to try."
"That'll be fine, Will. I'm sure." Xander said, patting her arm. "I'll go up to the car then, and you guys can..." he glanced at Buffy and his jaw dropped. She was petting him! Petting Spike! And the way she was gazing at the vamp... like he mattered to her... like he was something precious! He shot an incredulous look at Willow, but the witch was too involved in her thoughts to notice what was happening. "Umm... what's going on here?"
"N... Nothing! Don't worry." Tara took his arm and turned him away from the bed. "Just... let it rest for now, okay? There's too much to do as it is. Go on and get the box, please."
Xander climbed the ladder, biting his lip. Something nagged at his memory... he'd missed something... something important. "Oh. My. God!" he yelled, smacking himself in the face. He poked his head down through the hole in the floor and glared at Spike. "Exercises my ass! You... you... and you, you were... together... You!!!"
Tara pointed at him threateningly. "Xander, go!"
Walking out of the crypt, he could only shake his head. "Ew..." he muttered. "Exercises. Am I the biggest dummy on the Hellmouth or what? `Gee Spike, have you seen Buffy?'," he squeaked, mimicking himself. He shuddered. "I saw Spike having invisible sex with Buffy, and just let it happen! Ew!"
"You saw what?" Dawn asked. She leaned against his car, her school backpack at her feet. "Buffy? And Spike?"
Xander froze. "You... You didn't hear that."
She grinned at him. "Oh yes I did. Spike and Buffy had sex while she was invisible. That's what you just said, isn't it?"
Covering his face with his hands, he groaned. "It's *so* much worse hearing it from someone else's mouth, Dawnie. Thinking it was gross enough. Listening to you say it is... oh man, as soon as we bring him back from crazy-land, I'm going to have to kill him."
"No, you're not." Dawn punched his arm. "You're not doing anything to him. You're not even going to bug Buffy with this penis-envy crap till after she takes down the new Big Bad."
"Um... hello? I have a penis, ya know. No need for envy here." He blushed. "Umm... I mean... you're Dawn... you're not suppose to talk about things like... things...."
She shouldered her backpack and opened the door to his car. "C'mon, let's do whatever it is you're doing, then go back and help Buffy. I heard her yelling at Willow before I got out of bed, something about a problem with Spike. You can fill me in on the details."
"Sure," he said, surprised. "I guess. You're fifteen now. That's the legal age for demon killing on the Hellmouth, right?"
"I'm fifteen... or maybe a million and fifteen, who knows? Depends on if the Bosses Of Us card the Key or Dawn Summers. Either way, I'm old enough to be some kind of help." She pouted, knowing Buffy wouldn't agree. "I can at least run for snacks... or make jokes when everyone's stressed... or something."
"Then what would I do? I shouldn't let you come. Job security and all that. The Scoobs might like your doughnuts better than mine." Xander said, ruffling her hair. "But I guess I can risk it. You can help. Hopefully Buffy'll be too distracted with her newest corpsey love toy to beat me up for not sending you back to school. Or... not hopefully. Ignore that part. Ew."
"Are you sure *you're* old enough to help?" Dawn asked, rolling her eyes.
"I dunno, but if I have to see Buffy petting Spike ever again, I sure wont be getting any older. The first time almost did me off."
A terrible scream from inside the crypt broke through their banter. "Time to go," Xander said, grabbing the box. They heard another scream, followed by the sound of something breaking. "Time to go NOW."
**********
"Andrew! Quit that, you psycho!" Jonathan looked at his friend, then back at the disgusting image on the video monitor in the Super Van. "What do you think you're doing? Why is Spike barfing blood?"
"What else would a vampire barf, stupid?" He leaned back in his seat, laughing. "Look, it got all over Willow. She started screaming and that other girl grabbed her. Then, I pushed this," Andrew said, pushing the `volume up' button on the remote controller. "Look what that does!"
Spike's body began to convulse on the monitor. Jonathan watched as Buffy threw herself on top of the vampire, trying to hold him still. His face, vamped since Warren had first messed with his chip, seemed to grow horrifically bumpy. Jonathan could barely recognize any human features.
"Look how freaked she is," Andrew said, zooming in on Buffy's face. "She's... like..."
"She's petrified," Jonathan muttered, grabbing the remote controller. "You... you're getting as crazy as Warren. C'mon, Andrew. Don't be like this. This isn't what we signed on for. Show me how to stop this."
"Fine," Andrew said, his face falling. He took a last look at the monitor, just in time to catch the single tear that dripped down Buffy's nose as she gazed into Spike's terrible face. "Spoilsport. All you have to do is push the Power button. It'll undo everything except that part Warren broke."
Jonathan pressed Power, and watched in amazement as Spike's body drew up into a spastic ball, then straightened slowly. Buffy leaned over him, then motioned to the strange girl, who grabbed a cardboard box from a teenager. She began pulling items out and placing them around the bed in a circle.
"They're doing a spell," Jonathan said. "This could take a while. Let's go."
Andrew touched a fingertip to the screen, stroking Dawn's image. "Who's this?" he asked, his voice thick. "She's... look how hot she is."
Snapping off the monitor, Jonathan grabbed Andrew by the shoulders and ushered him to the passenger's seat. "We have to get back to the lair. Warren'll be pissed if he gets back from his parent's house and we're not there."
Nodding, Andrew glanced back at the black-screened monitor. "Who was that girl?" he repeated.
"Dude, that was Buffy's little sister, Dawn. Get that look off your face. Even if she wasn't the Slayer's sister, she's still totally jailbait." Jonathan started the van and began to drive, but kept a wary eye on Andrew. Something wasn't right with him. Something was... "Hey. Your eyes are all glazed. What's up with your eyes?"
"Nothing, I don't know. What's wrong with yours?" Andrew giggled, digging into his pocket. He pulled out a small, brown pill bottle. "Have you tried these? They're great. Grrrrrreat!!!! You know, like Tony the Tiger?"
"Drugs? You're doing drugs now!"
"Lighten up, man. Eat one of these, and all your worries disappear. Like super Prozac, only with giddiness and.... what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Andrew," Jonathan said, struggling to stay calm. "Where did you get those pills?"
"From Warren." He smiled, the cloudiness of his eyes giving him an unnatural air of innocence. "He said they'd make me easier to be around, and happier."
"More like, easier to boss around," Jonathan said. He grabbed the bottle from Andrew's hand and tossed it angrily into the back of the van. It broke open, he could hear the sounds of dozens of pills bouncing off the computer equipment. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you letting yourself become Warren's bitch?"
Slumping deeply into his seat, Andrew sighed and closed his eyes. "He said the pills would make me forget about Katrina. The way her body sounded when it fell on the stairs... the color of the blood on her hair... the tangy smell of it... oh God, Jonathan." He jumped up and stumbled behind the passenger seat, scrambling desperately around the floor in search of a pill. "Oh God, the smell of her blood."
His mouth a grim line, Jonathan checked the rearview mirror guardedly. "I know, Andrew. I remember. This whole thing sucks. We're not super villains anymore. We're worse than that now. But Warren's even worse than we are. We have to get away from him. We have to."
"He'll never let us walk away from this. You know he wont. He'd kill us first. We know too much about him, about what he's done. About what he's planning to do with his stupid human toys."
"I know. We need help. I'm taking us to help," Jonathan said. With a final check of the mirror, he turned the van left onto Revello Drive. "Or possibly, to a slow, agonizing death, but let's just hope she'll help us instead. We're dead either way. Comforting to know things can't get any worse."
References
1. http://cgi.komodo-skin.com/forum
2. mailto:Dragolyn@hotmail.com
Chapter 2
Summary: Takes place directly after Dead Things. The Super Geeks gain control of Spike's chip and use him like a weapon, but since they are the Super GEEKS, things don't go quite the way they planned. B/S in nature. . It's a response to a challenge posted by Nos on Crumbling Walls ([1]http://cgi.komodo-skin.com/forum). The challenge details are written in the first chapter.
Rating: R to be safe. I don't really know.
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Never were, never will be, Joss owns the whole world, blah blah blah.
Spoilers: Through Dead Things.
Feedback: PLEASE! [2]Dragolyn@hotmail.com
I would love to know if you think I wrote the character's voices right. Especially the Scoobies. I've never written them before, so this was new territory for me.
*********
Convincing Xander to meet her at Spike's crypt was easier than Buffy imagined it would be. She'd raced home to make the call for help, ignoring the nagging voice inside her mind that shouted about how it wasn't the smartest of plans to leave Spike tied up alone, even for a little while. Too many creatures of the demon world had it out for him these days, thanks to his sudden change of nature. Trying to ignore the pricklings of fear growing in her stomach, she ran up the stairs to her bedroom and threw a change of clothes into a bag. Passing by Dawn's room on her way to the bathroom, she thanked whatever lucky stars had made this crisis fall on a school day.
"Will!" she shouted, digging through the medicine drawer. "Wake up! Come on! I need your help!" Bandages, gauze, antibiotic ointment... none of those things would help Spike. Burn cream, tiny scissors, latex gloves, an ace bandage... no, no, no! She needed... what? A demon psychologist? A miracle? "No, something realistic," she said, running into Willow's bedroom and shaking her sleeping friend by the shoulders. "Will, wake up. Wake up! I need a spell."
"H...huh?" She sat up groggily, brushing her hair off of her face with both hands. "Buffy, what is it? What's wrong? Is Dawn okay?"
"Not Dawn," Buffy said, flinging off the bedclothes and tugged Willow to a stand. "It's Spike. He's... well, there's no time to explain. Just get dressed, okay?"
Willow shook her head. "Buffy, you know I can't do any magic. This... this isn't a test, is it? To see if I'll give in? `Cause I wont. I'm past that now."
"No test," Buffy said as she threw open the closet and tossed a pair of jeans onto the bed. "Call Tara. Now. Get dressed, go get Tara, and meet me at Spike's crypt."
"But Buffy..." Willow looked at her with nervous eyes. "I don't know... me and Tara don't exactly talk..."
"Not now, Willow. This is too important. Get her. Bring her, and whatever you'll need for a spell to... to... I don't know. He's crazed, like an animal. Do you still have any of those tranquillizers you used to give Oz wolf?"
"Spike's crazed? What happened?"
"Willow. Not. Now." Buffy growled, looking anxiously at her watch. The sun wouldn't rise for another hour. That gave all sorts of creatures plenty of time to stumble across Spike. Restrained as he was, he'd be helpless to protect himself. She had to hurry. "Bring whatever you think could help calm him, and get there, with Tara, as soon as you can." She rushed out of the room, not waiting for an answer.
Willow stared after her, blinking, trying to process what had just happened. "Wrong," she muttered, pulling on her clothes. "Something is very wrong here."
Picking up the phone with a shaking hand, she hesitated briefly before forcing herself to dial the numbers. "Hi, Tara? It's... it's me,Willow. Sorry to wake you up, but... it's Scooby time."
*************************
Xander climbed down the ladder to the lower level of the crypt, followed closely by Willow and Tara. He walked towards Spike's bed, but leapt back with alarm as Spike lunged against the restraints, snarling at him. "Holy tamales, Buff. Why didn't you mention on the phone that Spike's turned into a... that he's become a... what the heck is wrong with him, anyway?"
"You just answered your own question. What was I suppose to say? I have no clue what happened. He's gone all Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One minute, he was Spike. The next..." she gestured towards the bed, at a loss.
Willow approached the bed slowly, her hands open in front of her. "Hey there, Spike, it's okay," she soothed. "Remember me? Little ole, couldn't hurt a fly me?"
Tara raised a skeptical eyebrow, but said nothing. She followed Willow to the bed, a syringe in her hand. "Give him this, if he'll let you," she whispered, passing her the tranquilizer.
Spike stared at them, yellow eyes wild, teeth bared. The restraints were tethered to the corner bedpost, forcing him to lay on his side. His hands clenched into tight fists as he watched Willow draw near. The curved line of his body went rigid. A low growl rumbled from his chest.
"He is *so* not going to let you poke a needle into him right now," Buffy said from the foot of the bed. Kneeling on the mattress by Spike's knees, she ignored his ferocious noises. "I'll have to hold him down." She grabbed him by the shoulders, being careful to avoid his snapping jaws. "Xander, a little help please? Grab his legs and hang on tight."
Xander sat beside Spike's legs and leaned on them with his forearms. "Not having much fun here, Will," he grunted, struggling against Spike's thrashings. "Hurry, yeah?"
"Hurrying," she agreed, and quickly thrust the needle into Spike's arm. She jumped back, followed by Xander.
Buffy stayed on the bed, her hands white with the effort to hold Spike still. She couldn't bring herself to look at his eyes. They rolled in their sockets, completely void of comprehension. Focusing on her own hands where they dug into the pale width of his upper arms, she waited for the drug to bring him back to her. Heat welled beneath her eyes, and she bit her lip, staunching the tears. He'll be fine, in just a minute. Just another minute and the drugs'll work and he'll be Spike again.
A minute passed, and then another. They trickled by slowly without changing a thing. Xander paced the room, trying to ignore the expression on Buffy's face. Nothing leads to panic as quickly as the sight of a horrified Slayer. His eyes widened as he watched her run her fingertips over Spike's sweat-dampened hair. Okay, that's weird, but not *too* weird, he told himself. Spike's her friend now. He... helps out with Dawn... and patrolling...
Catching both Buffy's gesture and the look on Xander's face, Tara grabbed him by the arm. "Hey, could you... umm... uhh... oh, could you get the box of magic supplies from the car please? We'll need them if the drug doesn't start working soon."
"We'll need them even if the drug does work," Willow said, observing Spike with a critical gaze. "Something's doing this to him.... something unnatural."
"Do you think it's his chip?" Buffy asked, blinking rapidly as sweat dripped into her eyes. Spike had ceased struggling, but his muscles were taut and ready to take advantage of the first sign of weakness. She didn't dare relax her hold on him. The cuffs would keep him still, keep him from hurting someone else, but she needed to touch him. She needed to feel his familiar skin under her hands, to know that something of him was still with her. "It could be... I dunno, backfiring, or something?"
"It would be pretty weird if the chip could naturally malfunction in a way that would make him more dangerous then he was before it was implanted. Those Initiative docs would have made certain that wouldn't happen. This isn't natural. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I know how to find out. There's this spell I found once, when I was trying to undone what Glory did to your brain, Tara. It's like a... a pinpointing spell. It'll map his brain and find any areas of unusual change. I don't know exactly what makes it work, or for sure if it'll help, but... well, I don't know what else to try."
"That'll be fine, Will. I'm sure." Xander said, patting her arm. "I'll go up to the car then, and you guys can..." he glanced at Buffy and his jaw dropped. She was petting him! Petting Spike! And the way she was gazing at the vamp... like he mattered to her... like he was something precious! He shot an incredulous look at Willow, but the witch was too involved in her thoughts to notice what was happening. "Umm... what's going on here?"
"N... Nothing! Don't worry." Tara took his arm and turned him away from the bed. "Just... let it rest for now, okay? There's too much to do as it is. Go on and get the box, please."
Xander climbed the ladder, biting his lip. Something nagged at his memory... he'd missed something... something important. "Oh. My. God!" he yelled, smacking himself in the face. He poked his head down through the hole in the floor and glared at Spike. "Exercises my ass! You... you... and you, you were... together... You!!!"
Tara pointed at him threateningly. "Xander, go!"
Walking out of the crypt, he could only shake his head. "Ew..." he muttered. "Exercises. Am I the biggest dummy on the Hellmouth or what? `Gee Spike, have you seen Buffy?'," he squeaked, mimicking himself. He shuddered. "I saw Spike having invisible sex with Buffy, and just let it happen! Ew!"
"You saw what?" Dawn asked. She leaned against his car, her school backpack at her feet. "Buffy? And Spike?"
Xander froze. "You... You didn't hear that."
She grinned at him. "Oh yes I did. Spike and Buffy had sex while she was invisible. That's what you just said, isn't it?"
Covering his face with his hands, he groaned. "It's *so* much worse hearing it from someone else's mouth, Dawnie. Thinking it was gross enough. Listening to you say it is... oh man, as soon as we bring him back from crazy-land, I'm going to have to kill him."
"No, you're not." Dawn punched his arm. "You're not doing anything to him. You're not even going to bug Buffy with this penis-envy crap till after she takes down the new Big Bad."
"Um... hello? I have a penis, ya know. No need for envy here." He blushed. "Umm... I mean... you're Dawn... you're not suppose to talk about things like... things...."
She shouldered her backpack and opened the door to his car. "C'mon, let's do whatever it is you're doing, then go back and help Buffy. I heard her yelling at Willow before I got out of bed, something about a problem with Spike. You can fill me in on the details."
"Sure," he said, surprised. "I guess. You're fifteen now. That's the legal age for demon killing on the Hellmouth, right?"
"I'm fifteen... or maybe a million and fifteen, who knows? Depends on if the Bosses Of Us card the Key or Dawn Summers. Either way, I'm old enough to be some kind of help." She pouted, knowing Buffy wouldn't agree. "I can at least run for snacks... or make jokes when everyone's stressed... or something."
"Then what would I do? I shouldn't let you come. Job security and all that. The Scoobs might like your doughnuts better than mine." Xander said, ruffling her hair. "But I guess I can risk it. You can help. Hopefully Buffy'll be too distracted with her newest corpsey love toy to beat me up for not sending you back to school. Or... not hopefully. Ignore that part. Ew."
"Are you sure *you're* old enough to help?" Dawn asked, rolling her eyes.
"I dunno, but if I have to see Buffy petting Spike ever again, I sure wont be getting any older. The first time almost did me off."
A terrible scream from inside the crypt broke through their banter. "Time to go," Xander said, grabbing the box. They heard another scream, followed by the sound of something breaking. "Time to go NOW."
**********
"Andrew! Quit that, you psycho!" Jonathan looked at his friend, then back at the disgusting image on the video monitor in the Super Van. "What do you think you're doing? Why is Spike barfing blood?"
"What else would a vampire barf, stupid?" He leaned back in his seat, laughing. "Look, it got all over Willow. She started screaming and that other girl grabbed her. Then, I pushed this," Andrew said, pushing the `volume up' button on the remote controller. "Look what that does!"
Spike's body began to convulse on the monitor. Jonathan watched as Buffy threw herself on top of the vampire, trying to hold him still. His face, vamped since Warren had first messed with his chip, seemed to grow horrifically bumpy. Jonathan could barely recognize any human features.
"Look how freaked she is," Andrew said, zooming in on Buffy's face. "She's... like..."
"She's petrified," Jonathan muttered, grabbing the remote controller. "You... you're getting as crazy as Warren. C'mon, Andrew. Don't be like this. This isn't what we signed on for. Show me how to stop this."
"Fine," Andrew said, his face falling. He took a last look at the monitor, just in time to catch the single tear that dripped down Buffy's nose as she gazed into Spike's terrible face. "Spoilsport. All you have to do is push the Power button. It'll undo everything except that part Warren broke."
Jonathan pressed Power, and watched in amazement as Spike's body drew up into a spastic ball, then straightened slowly. Buffy leaned over him, then motioned to the strange girl, who grabbed a cardboard box from a teenager. She began pulling items out and placing them around the bed in a circle.
"They're doing a spell," Jonathan said. "This could take a while. Let's go."
Andrew touched a fingertip to the screen, stroking Dawn's image. "Who's this?" he asked, his voice thick. "She's... look how hot she is."
Snapping off the monitor, Jonathan grabbed Andrew by the shoulders and ushered him to the passenger's seat. "We have to get back to the lair. Warren'll be pissed if he gets back from his parent's house and we're not there."
Nodding, Andrew glanced back at the black-screened monitor. "Who was that girl?" he repeated.
"Dude, that was Buffy's little sister, Dawn. Get that look off your face. Even if she wasn't the Slayer's sister, she's still totally jailbait." Jonathan started the van and began to drive, but kept a wary eye on Andrew. Something wasn't right with him. Something was... "Hey. Your eyes are all glazed. What's up with your eyes?"
"Nothing, I don't know. What's wrong with yours?" Andrew giggled, digging into his pocket. He pulled out a small, brown pill bottle. "Have you tried these? They're great. Grrrrrreat!!!! You know, like Tony the Tiger?"
"Drugs? You're doing drugs now!"
"Lighten up, man. Eat one of these, and all your worries disappear. Like super Prozac, only with giddiness and.... what? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Andrew," Jonathan said, struggling to stay calm. "Where did you get those pills?"
"From Warren." He smiled, the cloudiness of his eyes giving him an unnatural air of innocence. "He said they'd make me easier to be around, and happier."
"More like, easier to boss around," Jonathan said. He grabbed the bottle from Andrew's hand and tossed it angrily into the back of the van. It broke open, he could hear the sounds of dozens of pills bouncing off the computer equipment. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you letting yourself become Warren's bitch?"
Slumping deeply into his seat, Andrew sighed and closed his eyes. "He said the pills would make me forget about Katrina. The way her body sounded when it fell on the stairs... the color of the blood on her hair... the tangy smell of it... oh God, Jonathan." He jumped up and stumbled behind the passenger seat, scrambling desperately around the floor in search of a pill. "Oh God, the smell of her blood."
His mouth a grim line, Jonathan checked the rearview mirror guardedly. "I know, Andrew. I remember. This whole thing sucks. We're not super villains anymore. We're worse than that now. But Warren's even worse than we are. We have to get away from him. We have to."
"He'll never let us walk away from this. You know he wont. He'd kill us first. We know too much about him, about what he's done. About what he's planning to do with his stupid human toys."
"I know. We need help. I'm taking us to help," Jonathan said. With a final check of the mirror, he turned the van left onto Revello Drive. "Or possibly, to a slow, agonizing death, but let's just hope she'll help us instead. We're dead either way. Comforting to know things can't get any worse."
References
1. http://cgi.komodo-skin.com/forum
2. mailto:Dragolyn@hotmail.com